Motor as used herein refers non-exclusively to electric, hydraulic and pneumatic motors and the like, and their associated hardware, including conventionally known control hardware, as employed in known manner in the appropriate art, and can be employed in the alternative.
Cylinder as used herein refers non-exclusively to pneumatic and hydraulic actuating cylinders and the like, and their associated hardware, including conventionally known control hardware, as employed in a known manner in the appropriate art, and can be employed in the alternative. Further, this term is also applied to other mechanical means of linear displacement such as rack and pinion systems, linear motors and the like, and others systems conventionally known in the art for effecting controlled linear displacement, and can be used in the alternative.
Conveyor as used herein refers non-exclusively to belt-type conveyor systems, driven-roller conveyor systems and chain-type conveyor systems, and others systems commonly used in place of the above, and their associated hardware, as employed in a known manner in the appropriate art, and can be employed in the alternative.
Present practice in load handling in warehouses with shelves for example, is to use load handling equipment by which the load is moved onto a shelf or other storage base, or taken away therefrom, by means of telescopic forks which are pushed beneath the load or by belt or chain conveyors which are inserted beneath the load. Forks or conveyors entering under the load have the disadvantage that the shelves have to be made unnecessarily high because empty spaces must be left between the shelves and the load to allow for the load handling. Another drawback is slow operation owing to unnecessary motions, because the fork or conveyor must enter beneath the load prior to any load handling operation and, finally, the fork or conveyor has to be withdrawn from beneath the load.
Also at the present time, equipment is used in load handling which grips a rib or equivalent means provided on an end face or a side of the load. Unnecessary motions are thereby avoided, since the load handling equipment need not enter beneath the load. There is, however, the drawback that the manufacture of, for example, crates or containers employed for this purpose is inconvenient owing to the provision of the ribs or equivalent means on the exterior of the crates or containers. Moreover, the protruding ribs or equivalent means are an impediment to the stacking of the crates or containers upon each other when empty.
European Patent 0 116,126 discloses an electromagnetic gripping system that is deployed from a standby position located below the conveyor system. This system has a disadvantage in that the height of the gripping means above the conveyor system is limited and non-adjustable. A further disadvantage is that any small parts that may fall from a container being handled by the system has a chance of falling into the working mechanism of the device thereby causing damage and down-time. U.S. Pat. No. 3,750,804 teaches a load handling mechanism designed for use in gravity feed storage systems and employs a unidirectional overhead gripping means requiring rotation of the entire mounting means in order to address both sides of a corridor. In addition, the overhead mounting system limits by its design the width of load that can be handled by the conveyor system.